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Engineering Graphics: The Fate of Pencil, Paper, and the 2-D Drawing

Gregory K. Watkins

William States Lee College of Engineering The University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC 28223

Abstract

The Engineering Technology (ET) department at UNC Charlotte began offering the first two years of its BSET curriculum in the fall semester 2004, having previously been exclusively a “two plus two” program. Although much of the first two years includes basic studies outside the department, a major portion of the new curriculum delivered by the department is the study of engineering graphics.

Developing the new curriculum from scratch allowed a fresh examination of engineering graphics education in the context of today’s computer driven society. One advantage was avoiding the “we’ve always done it this way” mantra. An additional advantage was the opportunity to examine today’s computer based drawing, modeling, and design tools, and to plan a curriculum around them, rather than integrating them into an existing course sequence.

Significant thought and planning went into the effort, and included input from several sources. Major decisions were made on several key issues such as: Should any work be done with manual instruments on the board? Is hand sketching an appropriate topic? Should some level of hand work (board or sketching) precede work on the computer? Should 2-D drawing practices, such as orthographic views and dimensioning, be stressed? Should the focus now be on design and parametric modeling rather than traditional 2-D drawing?

This paper details the issues faced in developing an engineering graphics course sequence for today’s engineering technology students. It examines the current role, if any, of board drafting and hand sketching. It includes discussion of the merits of studying 2-D drawing techniques, and how 2-D drawings dovetail with 3-D models. Parametric modeling is also discussed, including its role in the design process.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

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Watkins, G. (2005, June), Engineering Graphics: The Fate Of Pencil, Paper, And The 2 D Drawing Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14759